Making Your Own Mascara is a Bad Idea

Ever gotten inspired to make your own facial mask, hair conditioner or lip gloss? These products can be made safely.

However, nix any idea of making your own mascara. Anything used so close to the eye needs special consideration.

Beautybrains.com is a website that helps consumers look at the science behind why various products have certain ingredients and helps us decide whether the claims a product advertises can really deliver.

They recently posted a warning for people not to follow the instructions on this site as to how to make one’s own mascara.

That means that using this aloe vera gel for eye makeup exposes your eye to more risk of irritation from chemicals not used in products applied to eyelashes.

Next, activated charcoal is not a substance that is approved as a colorant for near one’s eyes. The FDA requires that companies use colorants for mascara which are certified to be safe for use so close to the eye.

Activated charcoal is a gritty coarse substance that may have other contaminants in it since its intended use is to absorb poisons or toxins that have been swallowed or as a material to filter liquids.

There are written safety precautions used by companies that sell chemicals that warn to keep activated charcoal away from one’s eyes due to irritation risk. If activated charcoal gets in the eye, thorough flushing is needed and medical attention should be sought.

Wow.
1 ) If activated charcoal is okay to put in your body, it would follow that it is okay to use near your eyes.
2) If aloe vera - a pure, natural substance that can be found organically - is okay to INGEST and use topically, it is safe to use near your eyes.

Why is this article so backwards? "TRUST THE FDA - THEY'VE NEVER APPROVED ANYTHING HARMFUL BEFORE!"

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You absolutely do not want to put activated charcoal near your eyes. Activated charcoal is what is given to people to who have overdosed to bind the toxic substance. Something you put in your stomach does not mean it is safe to put near your eyes.

Look, I have more than once spent 20 minutes flushing someone's eyes with a liter of saline in the ER because they have gotten something in their eyes that doesn't belong in the eye. Save yourself a trip to the ER. Don't put things near your eyes and risk damaging them.

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FDA does not approve charcoal, but approves Titanium Dioxide (top 5 toxic ingredients) and Fluoride in our water. Now the bar soap sales dropped in the store.... great! that means people make their own or buy artisan. But the statistics online show that people prefer liquid soap...junk information. don't read and trust the info the corporations spread around.

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So true.Ms. Blacksberg obviously puts a WHOLE lot of faith in the FDA's "approval, when most peole, even ones who aren't super aware, know that the FDA approves whatever/whoever pays the most and the can still get away with(so it can't be "in your face," immediate adverseeffects). Let me state it real simply, FDA approval means nothing, other than "bettter check into this yourself."
PS this website makes my computer do weird things , like making my cursor bounce around, typing is about 5 seconds delayed from the keyed entry (I can't see what I've typed until 5-10 seconds after I type), and it's almost impossible to go back and fix typos so I'm sending it the way it is. Hopefully my computer doesnt crash after visiting this site.

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Perhaps you misunderstood my quotes around approve. Literally, the FDA does not formally sanction the use of over the counter products other than making sure they do no harm.

The FDA does not "approve" products. The leave it to individual companies to provide the safety information and the onus is on the companies themselves. Companies cannot boast health benefits of their products. That the FDA sends letter out to the companies to cease or their product will be pulled.

It would be nice if there was a true approval system to determine effectiveness but that would be very very costly. So the FDA focuses on approval of drugs/medications which are more likely to do great harm. That process take years as drugs must go through clinical trials of larger and larger test populations.

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I guess i'll use ground coffee or pure cacao powder and a natural oil (coconut), instead. I'll try coffee first, as it is easier to obtain.

I must mention this:
Aloe vera gel (that I know) is gel directly from the leaf and not from a bottle. Many people have access to aloe (we grow aloe, actually) from the leaf. We use the pure aloe gel on skin and hair and even boil it to drink as a tonic (it's a cultural thing and it tastes awful). I've never heard of it being used on eyes, nor do I think anyone should buy the ones sold in stores with additives.

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